Canadensis – The Decades Apart Have Weathered Us Both
Canadensis – The Decades Apart Have Weathered Us Both
Medicine For A Nightmare
Release Date: 29/07/22
Running Time: 63:43
Review by Dark Juan
9/10
Hello, good afternoon, and welcome to another thousand words or so of terrifying ranting. Today’s horrors are brought to you by the number seven, the word “transubstantiation”, and the fact that the UK is currently sweltering in temperatures that are hotter than Satan’s arsehole after a meal of California Reapers. I, Dark Juan, am slowly dissolving into a pool of foetid and furious liquid because, let’s be frank, I am a Northern Englishman, and am built more for wandering about on winding, windy moors terrifying Southern campers by screaming for Heathcliff. You wanna see just how fast a camper can move when they are assailed by the plaintive cry of Dark Juan recreating the famous Kate Bush song on the moors in the pitch black for the simple reason that Mrs Dark Juan has thrown me out of the house because of the terrible caterwauling I was doing in the kitchen. I am not built to be slowly chargrilled when I am going about my daily business. I am especially not built to be arguing with ornery young gentlemen who have decided that going and playing basketball in 33-degree heat is a good idea, and I have said no and threatened them with staking them out in the heat and letting the crows take their eyes instead, because they are being fucking stupid. Such is the level of professionalism I operate at with my young gentleman wrangling.
So, with that in mind, I have retired indoors, where the temperature is merely uncomfortable instead of fucking lethal. Having managed to successfully procrastinate for over an hour when preparing to write this nonsense you’re now reading, I have finally dragged myself on to my sofa where the most comfortable buttock crevice is (Dark Juan has an arse like two poorly parked Volkswagens) and fired up the pooter and am currently ensconced, merely perspiring lightly, to listen to the latest release for Oregonian dronemeisters Canadensis. This is where some of you might get confused as the word “Canadensis” is the New Latin term meaning “Of Canada” with regard to species and their taxonomic classification, but it is also the name of the Pennsylvania village where this musical project was begun. The band is composed of D. Fylstra of Folian (and many others) and Tom Asselin of Shifting Harbour (among others also) and it is possibly the ultimate in Shoegaze and Drone. Opening track (it’s difficult to call it a song because the tempo is slower than continental drift) ‘The Shedding’ lasts a mere THIRTY minutes and is an aural depiction of two entities weighing up possible outcomes to some unknown conflict or relationship. The first half of the piece is slow, ponderous, pensive brooding, slowly building up into an explosive decision point that lasts and lasts until the emotion is drained off and the brooding returns and tiny points of light permeate the black, as the entities decide they are going to part ways, although they have only ever known being one. Yet, the sadness still remains, even though (on the second track ‘That Day I Felt Lighter’, clocking in only twenty minutes this time) there is a certain sense of relief permeating the gloom. Still, the entities move in a torpid fashion, languorous and indolent, and yet with an increasing lightness of being that doesn’t actually go anywhere.
It just… is. Until time says it isn’t anymore.
How can I best describe this music to you? Remember Anathema? The Scouse Gothic Doom Metallers for whom Darren White and Duncan Patterson played? On their debut album, “Serenades”, there was a closing track entitled ‘Dreaming: The Romance’, clocking in at twenty-three minutes plus, and it was much like this album – not so much pieces of music as a trip through emotion and the soul with an accompaniment of ambient sound. It is swirly and dreamy, soft and gentle but with steel beneath the silk skin, indolent and fainéant. It is those moments of quietus that everyone feels after they have survived a devastating crisis and they realise that they have actually started to heal, their soul beginning to escape the black, and colour seeping slowly back into their lives. ‘That Day I Felt Lighter’ reminds me strongly of that feeling.
‘Completely Incomplete’ is a musical piece that references (to my unbalanced mind, anyway) the person who has come out of a long-duration relationship, or traumatic event, and come to the understanding that they are never going to be who or what they were ever again, and that, although they are no longer part of a cohesive whole, they are a universe unto themselves, and that, even as they have undergone vast changes, they can function anew, by themselves. They can have enjoyment and activity without the other part of them, although the heart still gives an occasional pang of sorrow, and there might be times the person is sat, perfectly comfortably, watching the rain wash down a window pane and listening to it fall upon the ground, overwhelmed by the smell of petrichor and not wishing to move for evermore.
Not wishing to move for evermore. Canadensis make this Hellpriest want to cloister himself away from the world and just sit in silence and darkness and voyage into the internal universe of my own head. Granted, much of my imagination does resemble the Eye of Terror from Warhammer 40k, complete with Daemonculaba and Iron Warriors and The Unfleshed, but there is also a romantic and wondering, wandering component, and Canadensis appeal greatly to that part of my soul. This music is absolutely staggering, and it never moves beyond languor, yet retains interest and depth and feeling throughout. ‘As The Fog Swallowed The Beacon’s Light’ closes off the record and seems to reference the regret one may feel when, having made the decision to separate yourself, and having passed through the light you feel and the understanding that you can do things alone after making a huge, life-changing decision, you still have that ache to have that other person back, to experience things with you and to see the new you experiencing new stimuli and to share it with you. A wistfulness for lost things, and lost souls.
Metal, this is not. Not even a little bit, but it is absolutely fucking superb. Dark Juan loves Drone and Shoegaze, but this is not in the territory of Swans, Boards Of Canada, or even Kitchens Of Distinction. Canadensis play downtempo, almost ambient electronic music that probably will not be of any interest whatsoever to the casual or rabid metal fan, but will be of much interest to those of us who like having their head fucked with, and their souls turned inside out by sound.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is once again conflicted, as it thinks this album is a magnificent thing, but it has to lose marks for not being Heavy Metal. Conceptually, and in execution, it’s one of the most Metal things I have heard, as it carries its own serene power and a kind of unrelenting, yet gentle puissance. But, and this is the kicker, it is not Heavy Metal music. I don’t fucking want it to be though. It wouldn’t work because of the raw, emotional component that bleeds through the ambient, dreamy, long drawn out soundscapes.
Goddamn it, 9/10 because I fucking love it that much.
TRACKLISTING:
01. The Shedding
02. That Day I Felt Lighter
03. Completely Incomplete
04. As the Fog Swallowed the Beacon’s Light
LINE-UP:
D. Fylstra – Synthesizers, guitars
Tom Asselin – Synthesizers, guitars
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
